With the new GDPR legislations taking full force earlier this year, many companies have had to remove confidential waste from their businesses in GDPR compliant ways. Confidential waste is defined as waste, of which contains sensitive information. For example, documents, CD, USB ports and more.

Some people believe that incinerating confidential documents is an effective way of destroying them. However, this is not the case for several reasons.

It Doesn’t’ Work

Even in the hottest incinerators, it can be difficult to completely eradicate documents. If the documents have been compacted together in a box, no air will be able to get between each sheet, preventing combustion. You’ll likely find that the documents will be burnt around the edges, but large amounts of the paper will be unaffected. The only way to combat this is to burn the papers one by one, but this would be extremely time consuming.

It’s Dangerous

It’s no secret that fires are dangerous; they can spread quickly, and this is even more likely to happen when burning paper, especially if there are strong winds or flammable materials nearby. Burning confidential waste simply isn’t worth the risk.

Environmentally Unfriendly

Burning paper is unfriendly to the environment; it can cause air pollution, release harmful dioxins and the leftover ash contains toxic residue. The level of harm can be increased if you are also attempting to burn paperclips, disks or anything else that contains plastic.

Paper is very recyclable and can be made into soft tissue products after shredding, helping to save trees, water and energy. Burning is not the most effective way to dispose of your confidential waste and there are many other options available.

The safest and most effective option is to opt for confidential waste destruction with CDDL. We can clear your office of the clutter and arrange support to organise the waste and get it ready for collection. We can also collect and destroy all IT equipment, hard drives and WEEE items.

For more information, you can get in touch with the Confidential Document Destruction team today by giving us a call on 01795 874241 or via our contact page.